Local controller reports receiving a mayday call on guard while conducting a shift change briefing. ...

Narrative:

About XA30 am local time; I was conducting a briefing for local control. As I was covering the last of the traffic we noticed a primary target about 1 NM in front of an inbound guard helicopter. The relieving controller questioned the target to which my reply was;'I'm not sure.' at that moment the suspect target squawked 7700 and the guard helo called the tower. We then heard a mayday call on guard frequency and noticed a smoking inbound aircraft out the window. The guard helo was calling to inform us of the emergency aircraft. The relieving controller took control of the position and called on guard frequency to clear the emergency aircraft to land on runway 32. The emergency aircraft safely landed on runway 32 with emergency personnel enroute.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Local Controller reports receiving a mayday call on guard while conducting a shift change briefing. The aircraft is sighted on approach trailing smoke and cleared to land.

Narrative: About XA30 AM local time; I was conducting a briefing for Local Control. As I was covering the last of the traffic we noticed a primary target about 1 NM in front of an inbound guard helicopter. The relieving Controller questioned the target to which my reply was;'I'm not sure.' At that moment the suspect target squawked 7700 and the Guard Helo called the Tower. We then heard a mayday call on guard frequency and noticed a smoking inbound aircraft out the window. The Guard helo was calling to inform us of the emergency aircraft. The relieving Controller took control of the position and called on guard frequency to clear the emergency aircraft to land on Runway 32. The emergency aircraft safely landed on Runway 32 with emergency personnel enroute.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1014992
Time
Date	201206
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	RV-7
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Local
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

Local controller reports receiving a mayday call on guard while conducting a shift change briefing. The aircraft is sighted on approach trailing smoke and cleared to land.